The place to discuss, post photos, video, and audio of the G&L products (US instruments, stomp boxes, etc.) produced after 1991, including the amps & gear we use with them.
Has anyone tried changing the caps in their G&L's for tonal differences. I was thinking about doing it on one of my ASAT's (large mfd) just out of curiosity.
Any recommendations? Paper/oil sound better than poly/silver mica/ceramic? Change the Tone cap, Volume cap or both? Does that 6.8k resistor have any tonal effect (looks like it's just part of the grounding)?
Not entirely sure whether this is very useful, since there is not a hell of info provided in it, but here is a previous thread in which a similar question was posed. Here is Part I of a useful series of YouTube vids. Trust you will be able to locate Parts II - iV
[youtube]92G-jw4TqS4[/youtube]
Change them if want Dave, but I found that the capacitor that's in there to begin with is just fine. They aren't exactly expensive or difficult to change over so feel free to experiment. Just don't buy any of the over-hyped ones at stupid prices. You shouldn't have to pay more than $1 for one if you go to an electronics store. DO NOT buy them at a guitar supply store!!!! They'll rip you off.
IMO a cap is a cap and they all will do the job although there will be some variance, silver mica are top of the line. Guys mostly change out or add caps on G&Ls to cut the treble some, especialy on old caviliers, or to tame down the newer S-500 pups to give it more warmth similar to a skyhawk.
westsideduck wrote:... or to tame down the newer S-500 pups to give it more warmth similar to a skyhawk.
Hi Gary,
I am somewhat confused now. I thought that the modern S-500 has Skyhawk pups. At least that's what I have to conclude when I read George Fullerton's "George & Leo: How Leo Fender and I Built G&L Guitars". It is not explicitly mentioned in the Chapter 23 "The evolution of the S-500" (p. 105-112), nor the section "Modern' S-500" on p. 134. But there is this intriguing opening sentence in the section "ASAT III/ASAT III Signature" on p. 117:
Introduced in 1987, the ASAT III was basically an ASAT outfitted with Skyhawk pickups (same as used in the modern S-500), ... [Ed. my italics]
So apparently, the original square shaped S-500 pickups were of the brighter kind. Hope somebody can chime in too to resolve this. Otherwise I'll just wait for Greg and Gabe's book
I decided to take a look in the control cavity of both ASAT's I own, both Specials one 1990 the other 2004(ish). The link to the schematic on G&L's site I posted earlier shows a .1uf cap on the tone pot but both of my guitars have a .022uf cap, this does match the scheme of the ASAT Special diagram posted in the Gallery here though. The only other difference I saw was the newer ASAT does not have a resistor in there and the tone cap is soldered between the middle lug and the pot itself rather than between two lugs.
2004(ish)
1990
Also I think I remember reading somewhere that the Broadcaster's wiring differed from the ASAT but I have not been able to find a schematic or pictures of this.
Not to stray too far from the original topic...I think I'll leave it as is, there doesn't seem to be enough of a difference, in that video anyway, to justify messing with it.
The pickups used in the NIghthawk/Skyhawk, all Sc-3s and the late (Pre-BBE version), 1990-1991 S-500 are all very similar, The 90-91 S-500 pups, (not the squared end ones), have a couple of hundred more turns then the others, the squared end S-500 pups are a slightly different animal, IMO not as bright as the others mentioned and to me more even and acoustic sounding, ( I suck at describing tone) but they are my favorite MFDs. In 93 the S-500 got even more turns and BBE changed the winding from enamel to poly and they got even further away from the tone of an old hawk pup. So, What Mr. Fullerton was referring to as the "modern" S-500 pup was the pup used in the pre BBE 90-91 model.
The eary ASAT III, 1987, was fitted with the Skyhawk pups, I just scored one on the bay and can't wait to get my paws on it!
Thanks Gary. I got Tom Giberson's '89 ASAT III a month ago and the pups on that one are not overly bright. I would even claim they have a nice warmth to them. Amazing guitar and if I would gig, definitely one that would be superb for that purpose. Congrats with your acquisition!
